WSM Greetings to Independent Workers Union conference

The 3rd conference of the Indepedent Workers Union took place in Dublin this Saturday. The Workers Solidarity Movement extended our solidarity and ongoing support for the work of the IWU.

Unity is strength

On the occasion of the Independent Workers Union’s 3rd Annual Conference, the Workers Solidarity Movement extends our solidarity and ongoing support for the work of the IWU.

Over the course of the past 3 years the IWU has firmly established itself as a force to be reckoned with. By standing firmly in the anti-partnership camp and by refusing to be part of the cosy consensus through which government has strangled much of the life out of the mainstream trade union movement, the IWU has done much to re-kindle the spirit of real trade unionism.

The displacement of jobs and the ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of employment standards has emerged as a huge challenge for the trade union movement over the past 12 months. Irish Ferries, GAMA, ESB, Spencer Dock have merely been the most prominent of these. Anecdotal evidence and the experience of IWU activists shows that super-exploitation is taking place all over the economy – and especially in the construction industry, and in the retail and catering sectors.

The response of the official trade union movement has been pathetic. Calls for the government to appoint more labour inspectors and for so-called social partnership to agree measures to ‘protect labour standards’ are worse than useless. The state will always serve the interests of capital, the only way in which workers’ rights and labour standards can ever be protected is by trade unions recruiting all workers into our ranks and by fighting aggressively to defend and protect employment standards.

The Independent Workers Union can be a leading force in this battle. The challenge facing us is to organise the unorganised, and to stand firmly shoulder to shoulder with all workers – Irish and immigrant – against exploitation.

A strong base has been laid over the past couple of years. As we move forward, the IWU can become a beacon of hope for the working class – an independent, fighting democratic union which is not afraid to stand proudly on the side of the exploited.

Issued by members of the Workers Solidarity Movement active in the IWU in Cork and Dublin

RSS and atom feeds allow you to keep track of new comments on particular stories. You can input the URL's from these links into a rss reader and you will be informed whenever somebody posts a new comment. hide help

Anarchist organisation Workers Solidarity Movement has congratulated public sector workers who took part in today’s 24-hour work stoppage and called for further stoppages “in order to force a change of direction from the government”.

The IWW is fighting a major campaign against the centralisation and cuts within England's National Blood service. This release relates the latest phase of the wobbly campaign, which aims to reverse the plans.

This is the text of the Stand up for your Rights campaign that Irish anarchists from the Workers Solidarity Movement are involved in with other union activists. It's aimed at informing workers of their legal rights and encouraging them to organise and join a union.

From fast food outlets, to assembly lines, from corner shops to hyper markets there is one common relationship. That is the relationship between boss and worker. Those of us that have to sell our time as workers enabling us to pay rent, buy food and engage in leisure activities have nothing in common with those who buy our time. Those of us that sell our time are the employee class. Those that buy our labour are the employing class. These two classes have nothing in common.

We have to ask ourselves how we have found ourselves in unions where the leadership was allowed take such an approach. And we have to work out how we create unions that we control and which will help us organise together to defend our common interests. How has it come to this?

The government says if we Vote no to Croke Park they will impose it anyway. Many of the union leadership try and scare us into voting Yes with this threat and by saying the only alternative is strike action. Both are right. If we just vote no than the government will attack us. And when they do the only way we can win is if we are willing to fight back - that will mean industrial action. It will almost certainly mean at least the credible threat of an indefinite strike.

Irish trade union leadership have agreed an austerity programme for public sector workers. WSM is arguing against this deal. This article gives some of the details and our arguments against this attack on workers. [Italiano] [Français]

Many trade union activists have known for years that “social partnership” comes at a huge price for union independence and the ability of trade unions to defend the interest of their members. The myth that government and employers on one side and workers on the other side have some form of common interest has been peddled for over twenty years. This has resulted in a trade union movement whose leadership seems incapable of independent thought and whose membership has been browbeaten into accepting pay cuts, ‘pension levies’ and various attacks on our working conditions and living standards over the past couple of years.

Anarchist organisation Workers Solidarity Movement has congratulated public sector workers who took part in today’s 24-hour work stoppage and called for further stoppages “in order to force a change of direction from the government”.

The IWW is fighting a major campaign against the centralisation and cuts within England's National Blood service. This release relates the latest phase of the wobbly campaign, which aims to reverse the plans.